Adventist News

"A pastor of SDA Kaptembwa church was burnt to death by rowdy youths who had mistaken him for a robber. The robber had allegedly robbed one of them of a boda boda but the youths found out they got the wrong person when it was too late. Nakuru police boss Bernard Kioko said his office has been informed that Evans Orina, 58, was a pastor at Seventh Day Adventist Church. Orina was first beaten with crude weapons before being burnt in Nakuru’s Shabaab estate. “There are reports that the deceased had come from a nearby mini supermarket before asking for transport service from a boda boda operator among the ones who had parked nearby,” Kioko said. Kioko said there are claims that the pastor shopped and rode on a boda boda from one of the operators. Other people claimed that the rider of the boda boda he used went beyond his destination and when he asked to be dropped, the operator ignored him and kept speeding. “The pastor jumped and we are informed that someone shouted ‘thief’ before members of the public stabbed him and later burnt him,” Kioko said. He said the police identified the pastor through his ID card as they knew him. “People came later to the station and said the deceased was not a thief. There is someone who was sought after. We only know him as Rasta and we are looking for him,” Kioko said. He warned the public against mob justice saying most of the victims are innocent people. “We have even received cases where women set up their husbands after domestic quarrels,” Kioko said. He said the police have launched investigations into the killing."

"Members of Seventh Day Adventist church in Kigumo constituency are counting loses after the church sponsored school was demolished and burnt by area residents over alleged land grabbing. The irate residents who displayed anti-church slogans claimed that the church grabbed over 25 acres of land belonging to the public where new structures were under construction. However church officials claim they leased the land from the county council of Murang’a. The residents on their part lament that they have never benefited from facilities built on their land. Officials from the county assembly appealed to the residents to allow for investigations to take place saying the solution will be found as per the constitution."

"Eight people have been killed and several others injured after lightning struck a church in Malawi, south east Africa, local media has reported.

Several members of the Seventh Day Adventist church in the capital Lilongwe were taken to hospital following the strike on Saturday, the Nyasa Times said, citing witnesses, health officials and police.

It is not clear whether all were injured directly by the lightning or in the panic to escape.

“People were inside the church attending the service when the lightning stuck. I first heard a loud burst which frightened almost everybody and few minutes later I just saw a stampede,” the paper quoted a witness as saying."

"The Seventh Day Adventist (SDA) Education Unit has organised an award ceremony for its members in the Greater Accra Region as part of activities to mark the 125 years of national celebration of the church in Ghana.

In all, six teachers were honoured with awards and certificates for their devoted and dedicated service to the unit."

Here is an update to a previous news post about an Adventist Church's nativity scene.

"* UPDATE Dec. 20, 2013 * - At the original broadcast of this piece http://goo.gl/DUThqJ on Dec. 16th, TV20 did not have the opportunity to interview the church at the center of this story.

The head pastor of the Columbia City Seventh Day Adventist Church, George Worrell has since reached out to TV20 with a written statement. In a phone call, Worrell said that the Nativity display will not change next year because that would be an admission of guilt. He also replied in a written statement. This is a portion of what he had this to say:

"This parent did what you would expect any concerned and responsible parent should do – protect her young one. And who can blame her!! But the fact is, there was no decapitation of babies. Yes, there was a woman sobbing for her child, (an accurate prophetic depiction of the birth of Christ according to (Jer 31:15; Matt 2:17); yes there was a solider standing with a sword in his hand; and yes, there was a doll. But the decapitation of the doll’s head NEVER, EVER, HAPPENED. I fully understand the perception that was created in the King Herod scene. And anyone who knows his Bible could have interpreted such perception as reality. But it just did not happen. We had a 2-year old who participated in the program, and there is no way we would have exposed her, or anyone else, to that kind of brutality.

This is the sixth year of the Nativity Scene, and we have never had a single negative comment about the inappropriateness of the biblical narrative we presented. In the future if anything is done that a visitor deems inappropriate , please let us know, and we would do whatever is necessary to give due consideration to your concerns. In fact, we welcome the public’s input to making the event even more interesting. We are mindful that the Nativity Scene, like all the other stories and teachings of the Bible, cannot be compromised for the sake of being politically correct. This will be doing a grave disservice to the narrative of the Bible and defeat the purpose of what we are portraying to the public. WE must maintain the integrity of the lessons of the Bible if we are going to be credible.

To the parent whose 2-year old was disturbed by what she saw, I deeply regret the distress that was caused, and if there is anything I can do, please do not hesitate to contact me." George C Worrell, Church Pastor"

This is an interesting strory and a first for churches, especially since its also an Adventist church.

"Congregants from Kinderhook’s Seventh-day Adventist Church framed the future of energy efficiency Sunday at their construction site as the nation’s first house of worship to fully-implement passive house standards.

Encouraged by Rep. Chris Gibson, R-19, and project architect Dennis Wedlick, church leaders highlighted how the building’s nearly 6,000-square-foot floor plan pledges to help the congregation cut their carbon emissions by about 50,000 more pounds, per year, than what the state’s Energy Conservation Construction Code requires at 80,417 pounds.

“We are joyful this designer has come, that they are making this place a beacon of light, of truth and health for the community we live in,” Pastor Anton Kapusi said.

Passive home design is based on a German concept that promotes the use of sunlight, internal heat sources and heat recovery to eliminate the necessity of traditional, hot water heating systems. Pipes, radiators and central boilers that burn through fossil fuels can be reduced to a single post heating coil with windows, a highly-insulated roof and foundation, and heavily-insulated exterior walls that regulate a building’s overall warmth. Structures also have heat-trapping ventilation systems that recycle heat from their exhaust air into fresh air.

Congregants are hopeful they might worship in the new space by the end of next year."

Here is an additional article that interviews the pastor of this church. It is a good story about where he came from, especially because his country doesn't exist anymore.

"THE REV. ANTON KAPUSI: Pastor of the Seventh Day Adventist Church at Kinderhook

Background: Born and raised in "a country that doesn't exist anymore" in a town that was part of Hungary before World War I and is now in Serbia, he went off at 16 to a Seventh Day Adventist school in Croatia. He and his wife, Erika, live in Claverack. Their children, Noemi, 21, and Thomas, 18, attend Andrews University, an Adventist school in Michigan."

"New Year’s revelers in New York City’s Times Square will be able to catch 10-second advertisements each hour for the Huntsville-based Oakwood University on the 26 by 20-foot full-motion, full-color marquee under the CBS eye on 42nd Street near 8th Avenue.

“Neutron Media had a cancellation and approached us here at Oakwood University primarily due to our social media victory with the Home Depot ‘Retool your School’ campaign,” said Denica King, Oakwood’s assistant marketing director. “Oakwood University has been working to expand its awareness to its non-traditional audiences, so, for Oakwood and Neutron Media, this created a win-win situation.”

The two-second messages in the 10-second spot, which began Nov. 6 and runs through Jan. 4, 2014, are designed to get people to come to the Oakwood.edu website to find out more about the Seventh-day Adventist historically black college, King said. The school can change the messages every two weeks."

The Washington Post has an interesting article on a new Adventist restaurant that is worth the time to read.

"LEWISTON, Maine — On a main drag dotted with fast food joints, a new church-run restaurant is breaking the mold: It offers vegan fare as a healthy alternative in a low-income neighborhood. But for Seventh-day Adventists, who opened The Ark in a former Pizza Hut earlier this year, the project is no first. Adventists established meatless restaurants as early as the late 19th century in a bid to encourage healthy living.

Now, after decades of lackluster interest, the tradition is being revived. Eager to rekindle urban ministries, Adventists are feeding growing numbers of city dwellers hungry for meals that are good for both the body and the planet.

“There’s greater interest in vegetarian eating and healthful living now than ever,” said David Trim, director of archives, statistics and research for the Seventh-day Adventist Church. “It’s an idea whose time has come.”

These days, local and regional Adventist initiatives are giving rise internationally to new vegan (no animal products) and vegetarian (no meat, but permits dairy) restaurants.

Adventists have opened new vegetarian restaurants this year in New York City, Phnom Penh (Cambodia), Copenhagen (Denmark) and Tampere (Finland), according to Trim’s records. Others have sprung up in recent years in cities as varied as San Francisco and Chattanooga, Tenn. More are in the works in countries from England to Brunei, a Muslim nation where Christian evangelism is banned but operating a restaurant is permitted."

"It was an exciting time for the Dakota Conference of Seventh-day Adventists last June when they debuted their new office in north Bismarck during an open house.

During the celebration, a rather large Christmas cactus happened to catch the eye of attendees and Communications Director Jacquie Biloff was more than happy to explain how this hefty cactus came to grace the conference room of the new office.

“She was explaining to someone that it had been given to her husband’s mom by a Dora Bohnet way back in 1952,” said Lynette Miller, Adventist Book Center manager. “And, I thought, oh my gosh, that’s my great-grandmother.”

The rare connection baffled the pair, and they went on a search to connect pieces of stories from both families to weave the tale of the plant’s cross-country trek.